PIRACY AND TERROR

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) today issued their interim piracy report - indicating a drop in overall incidents of piracy but noting a few disturbing trends.

Since 9-11, maritime and counter-terrorist officials have been concerned that terrorists may be seeking to hijack and use a petrochemical or natural gas tanker as a floating bomb. Today’s report has some disturbing data to support those concerns.

The number of attacks on chemical tankers and cargo ships carrying chemical products has continued to rise. In the first six months of 2004 there were 33 such attacks, compared with 28 in the first half of 2003, 13 in the first half of 2002 and fewer than 10 in the initial six-months of each preceding year.

There is also more frequent use of lethal violence and heavy weapons. The number of reported piracy attacks worldwide fell in the first six months of this year to 182 compared to 234 during the corresponding period of 2003. However, the number of people killed in piracy incidents rose to 30 as compared to 16 for the same period in 2003.

The highest-risk area continues to be the waters around Indonesia, in particular the coastal region near the province of Aceh. The regular use of automatic weapons, as opposed to the more ‘traditional’ use of machetes and small arms, and the increased numbers of ‘pirates’ that take part in these attacks indicates that something nasty is afoot. There is still some debate as to what is happening though, it may be criminal syndicates or dry-runs by terrorist groups.

As I mentioned before, Aceh is is susceptible to the Islamofascist nihilism of Al-Qaida.